Rethinking Census 2021

Is it time to think beyond the traditional questionnaire-based approach in India as well?

Activities for the next decennial Census of India, falling due in 2021, will be spooled in no time. While it is likely to be another traditional census, there has been a remarkable transformation in census methods elsewhere in the world, mostly in Europe, within the last two decades or so. Instead of implementing the questionnaire-based method, attempts are being made to use data from various administrative data registers, mostly from government sources, to produce useful statistics.

In 2000, the Austrian government decided that the 2001 census would be the last traditional one involving a high burden for respondents, and a huge